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L/HHM '07 Focus: The Candidates and the Hispanic VoteWelcome to Latino/Hispanic Heritage Month, 2007! This year we celebrate Latinos’ bogarting the news!
For Latinos, this past year has been one of great prominence in the media, with the question of undocumented immigration, distilled in the public’s mind to mean Mexican workers, the most covered and contentious issue after the war in Iraq. With comprehensive immigration reform being voted down in Congress, and with economies south of the border failing still to provide their workers a living wage, the question of what to do with the undocumented will continue to rage at least until the outcome of the 2008 presidential elections. While this year didn’t see the mass street clamorings for reform with compassion of 2005-2006, activist immigration groups are coalescing in impressive numbers, especially around economic issues (See for example this site on the boycott of Western Union and the home page of TIGRA, one of its main organizers, and of Western Union, where you can check rates), and the courts are hopping with antidiscrimination cases. More big news, more grim, has been the failing report card—in grades and conduct—of Alberto Gonzales, the first Latino attorney general in our history, and his resignation. Sadly , the community is viewing his departure mostly with relief, although there are some, unfortunately the major Hispanic organizations, who’ve kept their heads in the sand throughout Gonzales’ unfortunate tenure. It’s not over yet for “Fredo” as Congress may still slap him with perjury charges. Another political personality note is positive: New Mexico governor Bill Richardson has come out as a Mexican-American. And as a presidential candidate. His chances of winning the Democratic nomination are now slim as he’s trailing way behind Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards. By all accounts, with his broad domestic and international experience, Richardson is the most qualified of all eight Democratic hopefuls. In light of this, his ethnicity, and his popularity in the Southwestern states, the buzz is that Richardson-Lopez may be tapped as Clinton’s running mate should the former first lady win the nomination. Latin America has been a headline getter, increasingly this year as the Latin south flexes growing economic and political power, distancing itself from the hegemonic hand of the US. 2007 saw the election in Ecuador of Rafaél Correa, the reelection of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, the return of Daniel Ortega to Nicaragua and the positioning of the wife, Cristina, of Argentina’s current president, Nestor Kirchner, to take the reins from him in October. These five leaders along with two incumbents, Michelle Bachelet in Chile and Evo Morales in Bolivia, all head populist and independent-leaning administrations distancing themselves in varying degrees from the US. They are rejecting self-serving US plans for free trade while seeking new trading partners—many have turned to China—and greater political unity and economic integration amongst themselves. In addition, no one amongst them has marginalized Washington’s hemispheric arch-enemy, Cuban president Fidel Castro. The Hispanic American Village had been intending to celebrate Heritage Month with an exploration of the presidential candidates’ views on issues of import to Latinos--that construct of various ethnicities, social and cultural heritages, unified by language and, perish-the-thought, the legacy of Spanish colonial rule that we call “Latinos” or “Hispanics.” As HAV editor, I’d been diligently combing the candidates’ various web sites, news stories and analyses of the pre-campaign. And then along came, en español, the Democrats’ “Foro” of last Sunday night (9th Sept.), hailed a “historic event,” the first time a presidential debate was broadcast in Spanish by the Spanish media. Seven of the eight announced Democratic presidential candidates appeared at the Univisión and University of Miami sponsored event, speaking to and around a number of issues. Univisión anchors, Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas, did much of my homework for me, asking questions that touched on: immigration, the war in Iraq, US policy towards Cuba and Latin America, health care, and more. It was refreshing to hear them throw the candidates a curveball or two, eliciting responses of varying acuity. Salinas, for example, nonplussed them all by asking why build a wall on the Mexico-US border and not between the US and Canada. Richardson recovered typically with a trenchant quip, saying if the US built a 12 foot wall, then the immigrants would respond by building lots of 13 fooot ladders. The most measured and predictable answers came from the front runners, with senator from New York, Hillary Clinton, projecting herself as tough but compassionate on immigration and too vague on Iraq; Senator Barack Obama tried to make concert with Latinos, sharing their immigrant background; and former senator John Edwards pushed his populist agenda. Whether his reception will result in actual support is doubtful, but Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio won cheers many of the University of Miami audience with a number of his answers. He won a round of applause when he declared that as president he’d immediately pull US troops out of Iraq. Kucinich scored big again, being the only candidate to endorse declaring Spanish our second official language and by commenting on the general insensitivity to the undocumented which routinely refers to them as illegal immigrants. “No human being is illegal,” said Kucinich. Prominent Latinos were quick to appreciate the import of the event by declaring, “The real winner this evening is Latino power” (Joe Garcia, head of the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party). And, “…the Univisión debate marks a coming-of-age of the very politically engaged Latino community” (high-profile media commentator, Roberto Lovato). The forum clearly demonstrated that, with 18 million Latinos eligible to vote in 2008, their preponderance in decisive states, and their earlier flirtation with the Republican party, the Latino vote is the one to court. What do they stand for?I’ll start today with a round-up of the positions from both major party pre-candidates on selected key issues, but check for updates throughout the month. Apologies for seeming to short-shrift the GOP. But, we don’t, nor will we, have the privilege of examining their performance in front of a million-strong Latino audience. THE DEMOCRATSImmigration: All candidates want to see an end to indiscriminate undocumented worker sweeps and, in some form, support a guest worker program, with Edwards stressing his “path to citizenship” proposal that facilitates yet conditions citizenship upon learning English and paying extant fines. Clinton is for the fence, a guest worker program, and harsh penalties for employers who hire undocumenteds, but she opposed the immigration reform bill amendment that would have prevented criminals from becoming US citizens. While supporting a guest worker program, Obama favors offering American workers jobs at equitable pay before foreign workers; he voted for the border fence, but favors broad amnesty for undocumented workers. Edwards would allow more immigrants in legally, but wants to strengthen border security. He would speed up the path to citizenship, last proposed at 13 years for the undocumented. Iraq: John Nichols of the Nation magazine has underscored the under-reported Richardson support of an immediate pull-out of troops. (Here’s Nichols’ blog.) According to Nichols, when word got out, it caused a bump in the polls for the former UN ambassador. Nichols posits that Obama and Clinton will now have to move towards a more unequivocal position on a US pull-out. Clinton voted for the war and refuses to apologize for that vote; she supports keeping a “reduced residual force in the country.” Obama, while opposing the war from its inception, would keep troops in until the end of 2009. Edwards voted for the war, which he now says he regrets, and would pull 40,000 to 50,000 of the approximately 160,000 US combatants now there. Both Gravel and Kucinich favor an immediate pull-out. Cuba: The two front runners’ courting of the Cuban-American vote follows a generational pattern with Obama targeting younger Cuban Americans who want to see some relaxing of punitive measures aimed at the Castro government but punishing the Cuban people at the same time, while Clinton has thrown in her lot with the mostly older hardliners. Obama has voted twice to cut off funding to Radio Martí, the US radio outlet broadcasting an anti-Castro agenda onto the island since 1983, but which the Cuban authorities have been routinely successful in jamming. He says, however, he wants to shut Martí down for funding reasons. Hillary has consistently been in support of the broadcasts. Obama is open to the suggestion of lifting the blockade against Cuban goods, easing travel restrictions and the limits on remittances and visits to the island by family members; he was famously chastised by Clinton after saying he would meet and negotiate with Fidel Castro. Clinton is steadfast about no changes in US policy until there is regime change in Cuba. Kucinich, former Alaska senator, Mike Gravel, and Connecticut senator, Christopher Dodd, favor lifting the embargo. Richardson would go along on the condition that Fidel free all political prisoners. There’s nary a mention of Cuba on John Edwards’ web site, perhaps because of a big booboo he made in front of an Iowa audience. When asked—the question was obviously inspired by Michael Moore’s movie Sicko—whether he favored a Cuban-style health care system, Edwards replied, "I'm going to be honest with you - I don't know a lot about Cuba's healthcare system. Is it a government-run system?" Other Latin America Policy: The forum did much to promote the candidates’ views on Latin American policy, an issue pretty much off their and the media’s radar before the forum. Latin America has been “abandoned” according to Sen. Clinton, with general agreement from the other candidates. The nettlesome issue of Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez was mostly sidestepped, though most see him as an irritant whose rise to prominence in the region could have been obviated had the US been paying more attention and, according to former Senator Edwards, were we not so dependent on the oil we buy from Venezuela. Sen. Gravel was unequivocal in stating he would reach out to dialog with Chavez.. The candidates’ spectrum on free trade runs from Richardson its greatest booster—he was one of the architects, in 1994, of NAFTA—to a solid middle of cherry-pickers, some good, some bad agreements—a number of those in a position to vote helped to defeat the Central American Free Trade Agreement—to Gravel and Kucinich who favor repeal of NAFTA . (Kucinich makes a major campaign pitch decrying free trade agreements for further impoverishing workers in their homelands and thus a key cause of undocumented immigration.) Several legislators who have voted against free trade have done so not so much as to protect the economic integrity and sovereignty of the developing world, but because they fear compromise of US workers’ protection and oppose the agreements’ unconcern for resulting environmental degradation. None of the candidates’ web sites deals with our relations with Latin America, and there was scant mention of non-immigration related US-Latin American policy before the forum. Same-Sex Marriage: Only Gravel and Kucinich are in favor of same sex marriage, but all oppose a constitutional amendment that would ban such unions. Abortion: All eight Democratic candidates support abortion rights.
THE REPUBLICANSRepublican candidate, George Bush, in the 2000 election, received 40% of the Latino vote, the largest percentage in any presidential race. Soon thereafter, former top advisor, Karl Rove, initiated a campaign to bring Hispanics securely into the Republican fold based on presumed affinities for strict family values and social conservatism. But the critical mass never fully materialized, and the Republican precandidates are currently making few overtures to gain Latino support. Indeed they are losing many Latino votes due to the perceived racial overtones to some of the candidates’, most notably Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo’s, mean-spirited rhetoric on immigration. There will be no Republican Univisión forum as only Senator John Mc Cain, whose support has been drifting of late, committed to the event. There’s been little punditry on what the strategy will be once the official presidential candidate is selected, whether to consider the Latino vote a wash or return to the Rove agenda. (See Roberto Lovato’s article for New America Media after the elections in 2006. It’s a little dated, but relevant. Note that Rove advisor, Sosa, is now a bigwig in Bill Richardson’s campaign. Ah, what strange bedfellows politics makes!) Nonetheless, here’s a round-up. I’ve, for the most part, abbreviated the ten candidates to the three front-runners minus input on a fourth, Fred Thompson, former Hollywood actor and Senator from Tennessee, who’s just announced his candidacy. It’s late--some say too late--but the very conservative Thompson enters with a decent 19% approval rating. Iraq: General agreement on support for the president’s troop surge and the need to remain in Iraq and fight to the bitter end, except for libertarian-thinking Texas Congressperson, Ron Paul, who urges a pullout, and Tancredo who has come out in favor of disengagement but is patently anti-Muslim (see The Council of Foreign Relations on the candidates: Tom Tancredo.) Immigration: John McCain has the most liberal Republican position on immigration: he favors comprehensive immigration reform, a guest worker program, entitlements for legal immigrants, and allowing the undocumented to receive Social Security benefits. Of the front runners, Giuliani is the most inconsistent. He’s for the fence and tight border security, linking porous borders to pathways for terrorists. But he’s also in favor of allowing the undocumented a way to eventually gain citizenship. Giuliani was known to be “soft” on the undocumented while New York mayor. Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, favors making English our official language, securing the border, and denying tuition breaks to undocumented students. Cuba: Of the contenders, McCain has the only comprehensive package on Cuba: consistently in favor of sanctions, he has the backing of prominent anti-Castro Cuban Americans and, upon Castro’s death, promises the Cuban people aid, economic development, and “assistance in democratization” in exchange for their promise to the US of free and fair elections. Libertarian Republican Paul favors relaxing trade restrictions, which would be of benefit to US farmers. Mitt Romney is a hardliner, favoring maintaining the embargo; he, too, has the backing of prominent Cuban exiles. Giuliani’s rhetoric on Cuba has been directed at the Island’s leader. The vitriol may have backfired recently with anti-gay Republicans, when he excoriated Fidel for his homophobia, calling him "a murderer, a dictator, a man who has been horrible to gays and lesbians." (See Marc Santora of the NYTimes blogging this and Rudy’s “Chavez problem.”) Other Latin American Issues: Romney is a major booster of free trade as a way of ending poverty in Latin America and was a key and early booster of NAFTA, in 1993. Curiously, his father was born in Mexico City, into a Mormon community there, and Romney knows the hemisphere extremely well. Same-Sex Marriage: Romney is said to have flip-flopped on the issue of same-sex marriage--as he has on abortion--taking a hard opposing line for campaign purposes after being softer as Massachusetts governor. He stumps against same-sex unions now after having promised prominent gay Republicans not to fight its adoption in his state, in 2002. Currently, he favors a constitutional ban on gay marriage. Never a supporter of legalizing marriage for gay couples, Giuliani had nonetheless been a strong supporter of civil unions. Until the campaign. He’s been increasingly backpedaling from his earlier stand, fearing that civil unions looked too much like “an equivalent of marriage.” McCain opposes same-sex marriage but believes sanctioning them should be left up to the states. The Arizona senator, in an interview, said he would be “comfortable” with a gay president. Abortion: Romney has hardened his once more open stand, now supporting the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision of 1973 legalizing abortion. Giuliani, in trying to maneuver more to the conservative center of his party, has shifted his rhetoric on abortion from supporting the procedure—he still maintains the decision is ultimately up to “a woman and her doctor”—to favoring the overturn of Roe v. Wade and systematically encouraging adoption for unwanted newborns. McCain is in favor of denying federal funding to international family planning clinics that discuss abortion. “I don’t believe they should advocate abortion with my tax dollars,” He opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest and where the life of the mother is imperiled.
The Hispanic American Village leaves you with:Bill Richardson during the Univisión foro said, “Hispanics will determine the outcome of this election.” He might be right. In the meantime, stay tuned, and enjoy Latino/Hispanic Heritage Month. - - - - - - - - - - - The internet has done wonders for us all in bringing us more than enough information to help make an informed decision come primary day and in November, 2008. Here are some useful sites for checking the pre-candidates’ positions on the issues: On The Issues: http://www.ontheissues.org/default.htm The Council of Foreign Relations: http://www.cfr.org/campaign2008/issues.html Univision: http://www.univision.com/content/channel.jhtml?chid=3&schid=10414 And, of course, there are the candidates’ official sites. Just type in the name (one word) plus .com
Other Recent Readings of Interest
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Carol
Amoruso has had several vocational callings over the years. She's
taught young children, run volunteer programs for seniors, had a
catering business, designed clothes. Ultimately, she found that
nothing engaged and challenged her the way writing has. She's
written every day since childhood, professionally since 1990. Her
involvement in the arts, society and politics of Africa, the
Caribbean, and the Latin World have been the most inspiring and her
work concentrates on those areas. She travels extensively but lives
in New York City.